Location: Cave System Beyond Kingdom's Edge

Ze'mer dashed between through the vast cave systems, so far, no luck in finding where those strange creatures were coming from. She had been exploring for around a day, hunting various cave wild life she found.

Her current orders were to find out where these creatures came from, and then head back without being seen. I accepted that direct combat with these creatures would be folly, as evident by the collapsed buildings, corpses, and overstuffed clinics caused by the giant's rampage. But so far there has been nothing.

Ze'mer wondered if the Pale King was wrong about the creatures coming from this area. Nonetheless she would explore until she either found the source of these creatures, or was sure they were not there.

Ze'mer took the time alone and the silence of it to think about her beloved. Doing so helped in long, uneventful, and monotonous tasks like this. They would take strolls down Greenpath and Queen's Garden together, away from the prying eyes of the mantises. Her lover's father thankfully didn't know about it, she shuddered at the mere thought of what he would do to her.

The Mantis Tribe was... distrusting of outsiders to say the least. Even more so of those who directly served the Pale King, even though they hashed out several agreements in the past that are still in affect today.

Ze'mer also pondered what the King would do if they did find the source of the creatures. What could he do? Perhaps the Pale King would deal with them personally? No, that would anger the Shade Lord. Ze'mer wondered how the Shade Lord viewed these things as its children, the evidence pointed to them not having been a part of the Abyss.

The Shade Lord did not even know about these creatures up until recently, and had assumed the Pale King was breaking their agreement. This turned out to be false, the only claim the Shade Lord has to them being his children are that they are made of void. However, the creatures responded to the Shade Lord with hostility, sending some metal giant whose nature is still a mystery.

Was the giant the god of these creatures? Or just a powerful warrior? Either way, the creatures did not appear amicable to the Shade Lord. However them being void is likely. What else could survive in the Abyss for the period of time the Lord claimed he had one of those creatures there.

If so, this would imply the existence of another sea of void. Which could also mean another Shade Lord. Ze'mer shivered, one was enough, she really did not want to have to deal with another.

Crunch

Ze'mer was torn out of her thoughts by what sounded like something walking on gravel.

Crunch Crunch Crunch

The footsteps were getting closer. She had to hide. Ze'mer dove behind a nearby stalagmite. The crunching got louder and louder.

Ze'mer was still as a statue. Was as still as a statue, she waited for the tall beings to pass her. The wait was suspenseful, but they eventually passed the stalagmite she was using for cover. Ze'mer was able to get a good look at them, these ones were a bit different than the description of either the first occurrence of the tall beings or the giant.

Sure they were tall, and wore black like the giant did, but their helmets didn't have eyes, much less glowing red ones. They carried their death tube things in their hands. They wore some strange metal frame over their armor, Ze'mer didn't know what for though. If they noticed her, she may very well not see her lover ever again. Luckily, they didn't, as the crunching got more distant, Ze'mer dashed from her hiding spot. She was going to have to be more careful from now on.

Ze'mer would dash stalagmite to stalagmite, she could not afford to be caught out of cover if another one of these tall beings walked around the corner. She would go on like this for awhile, though no matter how many tall beings she hid from, or how many stalagmites she dashed to, there never seemed to be evidence of any… well… infrastructure.

There were no towns, or bricks laid, or anything. That was strange, how could a kingdom with the ability to craft the armor of the giant, not have this basic infrastructure. Yet, there were tall beings seemingly patrolling the area, like a sentry would the City of Tears.

It was… uncanny, who guards lands so utterly undeveloped and unused?

Ze'mer heard faint rumbling noises, but as she got closer, the tall being patrols got more and more frequent, her windows to dash to other stalagmites getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, she managed to find the source of the now blaring rumbling sounds.

What Ze'mer saw before her both amazed and frightened her. Taller beings clad in white were working with the coordination rivaling that of the Hive. They were setting down metal beams, constructing frames of buildings. Some of the white clad tall beings wore a similar metal frame to their black clad counterparts over their clothing. With them standing so close, Ze'mer noticed that the black clad figures were much taller than the white clad ones. Perhaps they were like the Hive, in that they had different breeds perform different tasks.

However, what really amazed her was the massive stone like wall with a metal segment in the middle. It had strange five pointed star markings on it, so this was a kingdom. Did this wall guard the entrance to the rest of a larger kingdom?

This was most troubling, Ze'mer would have to report this back to the king immediately. Suddenly one of the black clad tall beings pointed a finger over to where she was hiding. Oh Wyrm, they saw her.

Ze'mer hid behind the stalagmite, whispering words of apology. Apology to the Pale King for failing him. Apology to her fellow great knights for no longer being able to perform her duties. Apology to her lover, for never being able to see her again. Ze'mer cried to herself, she would never see her again. She desperately clung to the memories she had made with her, so that would be what she takes to the grave with her as her impending doom approaches.

Soon enough, a black clad figure towered over her quivering form.

It just… stared at her… it didn't reach for its death tube, it just stared. The expressionless mask that hid its face gave her no information on what the creature was thinking.

The tall being put its hand to the side of its helmet, and a strange distorted voice came from it. Of course she couldn't understand it. After a while of the creature just standing there, hand to the side of its helmet, it spoke again, this time shorter.

The black clad tall being looked down at her, its hand moving away from its helmet. It proceeds to point towards the way she came in.

Ze'mer looked at it with confusion, was it… saying she could go? The tall being pointed again at the path, this time Ze'mer shot up, and ran out.

Ze'mer was an emotional wreck, she had gone from making her peace, to being let go. She had to see her lover as soon as possible. She just… needed to tell them how much she loved her.

Location: Pale Palace

The White Queen sat on her throne, some noble bugs complaining to her about who rightfully owned some honorary title. The title didn't even hold land, bug nobles would just constantly fight over titles, no matter how worthless. Why couldn't they be more like the human nobles? Loyal, Smart, and knew when to drop something when it really wasn't that important.

The White Queen sighed, of course there were never enough humans to run the bureaucracy, so most of it had to be run by bugs. The White Queen wasn't sure what about purified humans that made them so smart, it wasn't the magic, that's all she knew. But once their former uncivilized identity had been annulled, their souls purified, and given the proper education, they drastically outperformed their bug counterparts.

The White Queen herself was a wyrm. Her head had four large horns jutting out like a crown, and her shell was as white as you would imagine someone with the name White Queen would have.

Suddenly the doors to the throne room was open, and there stood one of the said human nobles, long white hair flowing down either side of her head. The two bug nobles stopped their arguing, and looked at the human noble with a mix of awe and fear. They quietly exited the throne room as the human noble entered.

The human noble kneeled before her queen.

"My queen, I bring urgent news" The noble said

"Oh, and that is?" The White Queen said, curiosity in her voice, when a human noble said something was urgent, it usually was.

"Organized uncivilized humans are squatting in your lands, foolishly denying their responsibility to serve their betters"

The Queen was puzzled, uncivilized humans being organized wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't usually a problem.

The only organized group of humans that is, and continues to be a problem for multiple kingdoms were the 'Entomologists' as they called themselves. She did not speak human, but purified humans did not forget it, so it became a useful translation tool to interrogate humans before purifying them.

The Entomologists are a wandering group of nomadic humans that raid towns, steal supplies, and more often than not, eat the denizens of the towns they raid. Their origins are unknown, though records show that they were active during even the earliest years of the earliest kingdoms. They are staggeringly effective fighters, they seem to know the weakness of every kind of bug, and their skill in weapons crafting is considered to be some of the best there is.

No one seemed to know where they came from though, or how they are able to do the things they do. But what is known, that even human catchers avoid them like the plague, afraid of being their next meal.

"When asked about a leader, they claimed it was 'classified', likely meaning they have a leader. However, their lack of showing reverence or even revealing the name of their monarch revealed them to be uncivilized. They acted like sentries, my Queen, they even had matching uniforms."

"Hmm, no one uses their humans as soldiers" The White Queen said, even though their physical might sure would make them better soldiers than bug sentries, investing such a valuable resource into being a mere foot soldier was just plain stupid.

"They also carried strange weapons with them, tubes that launched something faster than my eyes could track, it tore a large hole in a tree behind me, I could not be assured of victory" The human noble said, a hint of shame entering her voice.

"Too dangerous for the human catchers then… how many were there?" The White Queen asked.

"Four my Queen, they were guarding some sort of black construct"

Four whole humans, that would be a great boon, worth the hefty military expenditure the noble claims is needed to acquire them.

"I take it you want assistance in acquiring them?" The Queen asked.

"Yes, my Queen" The noble said.

"I will mobilize other garrisons, it is time we civilized more of your brethren"

"Yes, my Queen"